Feels Like Home
by SaxonShieldmaiden
Summary: After The Doctor saves the real Melody Pond from Demon's Run, Madam Kovarian is forced to go back even further to defeat him. She orchestrates the death of Amy Pond's parents in a car accident and installs the girl in Wales so that The Doctor never crashes in her yard. Put out, TARDIS enacts her own plan to bring Amy home without consulting The Doctor, even if it is a little early.
1. Chapter 1: Madam vs Machine

**Author's Note:** This story takes place after _Rise of the Cybermen_/_Age of Steel_ and before _The Idiot's Lantern_.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Doctor Who or any recognisable characters therein.

Madam Kovarian let out a noise that was half growl and half screech as Demon's Run fell, and the Roman retrieved the _actual_ baby instead of the Flesh duplicate she had been preparing. Her plan, all of it, had fallen apart, but failure was not an option. She was an agent of the Papal Mainframe, and she had a mission to save the universe from The Doctor, The Time Lords, and Trenzalore. It was time for Plan Cardiff. "Ready the machine. Prepare funereal absolution for those who have fallen and those who must die."

The two closest Silents nodded and Kovarian reminded herself that the lives cost now were to save them all. She reminded herself of that again when she stood on top of a hill, watching the fiery wreckage of a car. She was not heartless, but the grater good came first. "Retrieve the child." She ordered. "And prepare the base in Cardiff. Amy Pond can't save him from himself if she's not there when he crashes into her garden."

* * *

Amy Pond had lived alone most of her life in a small house in Cardiff. She never really thought about how her life didn't make sense, she just lived it. The only thing that really changed was that she was tall enough to reach the cooker. No one else seemed to question the little redhead living alone, and if they did, they quickly forgot their inquiries. Now, at twenty, no one blinked. Amy sometimes had a sense of being followed, but she dismissed it just as quickly. Coming home from her internship at Buzz one night, however, she stopped and stared. There, by the Millennium Centre was an old police box.

Amy had a thing about police boxes. She stopped and inspected every one she saw and she didn't know why. Well, she did, but it was silly. She dreamed about a police box. A living one. Every night when she fell asleep there would be a comforting hum, like a sing song, or a happy little symphony of warbles, trills, dings and beeps. In her dreams, the inside of a police box wasn't really a police box at all. It was brand new and ancient, and the bluest possible blue. She knew it was silly, but she couldn't help investigating them.

This one was especially strange, as she knew that when she went to work that morning, there had most definitely not been a police box in that spot. Mentally chiding herself for being ridiculous, she crossed the plaza anyway, and reached out to touch the door, bracing herself to be disappointed again. She pressed her hand against the door and was startled when it felt warm under her fingertips.

Blinking in shock, Amy looked up at the police box. She found herself wondering if she had finally gone completely mental, feeling a strange hum under her fingers. "Hello?" She said quietly, making sure passerbys and the homeless man on the park bench couldn't hear her.

As if in response, the door creaked a little, and she took several steps back in surprise. She blinked again, in awe, as the door swung outward, completely of their own volition, or so it appeared. "I've lost it." Amy said to herself, staring. "Police boxes are just boxes, they aren't bigger on the inside..." Despite her statements, however, she moved forward, stepping into the box and looking around, eyes wide with shock.

Amy leaned on a strut of something that looked rather like coral or some sort of banyan tree, and barely noticed when the door snapped closed behind her. As if she was in a dream, the redhead moved over to the central console, running her fingers over the strange buttons, knobs and levers. The entire thing seemed alive, and as she touched a lever, the entire room seemed to purr like a kitten.

"Hello." Amy said, happily. "I dreamed about you, did you know?"

There was a pleased little gurgling noise, and the lights seemed to get brighter over by the hallway.

Laughing, Amy headed in that direction, and the lights continued on, like a game of tag, through the impossibly large and spacious hallways, until it stopped at a doorway. The door read 'Amy' in golden, curlicue script. Amy stared at it for a moment, almost more shocked that her name was on a door than by all the rest of it, living police box included. She carefully cracked the door open and stepped inside, her heels sinking into the plush cream-coloured carpet. This room was _hers_, it couldn't be more hers if she designed it herself. The open wardrobe contained her clothes, her shoes, the vanity in the corner held her large collection of nail polish and perfume, her nightie was laid out on the dusky violet comforter, a picture of her parents was on the nightstand, and her print of van Gogh's sunflowers over the bed. "It's beautiful." She breathed, taking it all in. She pet one of the coral struts right inside the door with a smile. "I love it."

The room purred around her, and an attached door swung open, exposing a large claw-foot tub and large fluffy towels, her striped robe hanging on the door.

At the sight, Amy felt the tired ache in her body from a week of too much work and too little sleep. It seemed the police box was prescribing a long bath and sleep. It sounded like the best idea she had heard in years. "You are brilliant." Amy said, kicking off her heels and letting her toes sink into the carpet. "You know that?" The room let out a little whistle, and the bedroom door snapped shut, leaving the redhead to her bath.

* * *

The TARDIS felt very happy with herself. The Pirate-Enemy had tried to take her Orangey One away. And well, the TARDIS couldn't have that. Thief needed the Orangey One. While all of the strays went away eventually, she could hardly let the Pirate-Enemy take away the Orangey One so that Thief never met her, it would unbalance the timestream too much. The ache in her temporal balancer had been going on for quite long enough already. The Orangey One was home, where she belonged.

Thief and Bad Wolf had quite the surprise when they got back. Or was it would have? Tenses are very confusing things. Still, she had won against the Pirate-Enemy and her Silent Ones. Or was that would win?


	2. Chapter 2: Stowaway vs Crew

The Doctor was not one of those people who could have a normal day. He was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and after a perfectly normal, tooth-achingly domestic day in Cardiff with Rose, eating chips and visiting Cardiff Castle, he was still waiting. Aside from getting tossed from the castle for correcting the tour guide absolutely nothing had happened. That was just not how things went.

Rose thought he was being ridiculous. Usually her cheerful smile and twinkling eyes could distract him from his darker, more worrying thoughts, but not today. He watched Rose head off toward her room before checking all the settings on the console, and finally sending them into the vortex. He puttered around a bit longer, double and triple-checking the settings and even considering mending that chameleon circuit again, before he decided to go to his room. Time Lords needed far less sleep than humans, but it had been awhile and it was possible that his paranoia was due to a lack of sleep.

He had every intention of going to his room to sleep, but on the way there, he spotted a new door. The TARDIS usually didn't create rooms for no reason, so curious, he opened it, not looking closely at it. If he had, he would have seen the name...and probably opened it anyway. As it was, he stared at the bedroom, uncomprehendingly for a few minutes before the figure in the bed shifted, and long ginger hair came into his view.

"What?!" The exclamation came before he had thought it out, his mouth two a millisecond behind his mouth, as the girl sat up in bed and promptly screamed. He had no good response to this except to take another step into the room and repeat his question. "What?!"

Amy had a good set of lungs on her, and while she wasn't usually the 'damsel in distress' type, or so she'd like to think, she screamed anyway. "What are you doing in my room?!"

"Your room?" The Doctor sputtered. "What are you doing on my ship?!"

Rose, drawn by the noise, came up into the doorway behind The Doctor, surprised and _not pleased_ by what, or rather, _whom_ she found. "Who's she? What's going on here?"

"Both very good questions, Rose." The Doctor admitted, not looking away from the ginger stowaway. "Who _are_ you, what are you doing on the TARDIS?"

Amy, feeling at a distinct disadvantage, got up from the bed, and took several large steps back to one of the coral struts, pulling herself up on it slightly, like a seat, hoping that the ship liked her well enough to protect her. "The ship invited me. She made me this room and suggested I get a bath and get some sleep. Next thing I know, you're all _shouting at me._"

The Doctor didn't know what part of this tale was more unbelievable. "What do you mean the TARDIS invited you? The TARDIS can't talk!"

As if involved in the conversation, The TARDIS gave a low hum of protest, and Amy petted the strut affectionately. "I've dreamed about this box since I was little." She admitted. "A magic blue police box, brand new and ancient at the same time, that hums and whistles and purrs."

As if in answer, the TARDIS gave a little purr of encouragement.

Amy took a breath and continued, watching as the man's face softened. "So I look at every police box I find, up close. I saw this one, and...the doors opened."

"What, without a key?" Rose scoffed, not quite believing her.

"Yeah, that alright with you?" Amy snapped back, defensively. "So I came in, and we played follow the leader until she brought me to my room."

The Doctor took in the redhead in her nightie, and the TARDIS around them. "Well, I guess after this long you're allowed to pick a companion now and then, Old Girl." He told the ceiling.

"Doctor, you aren't seriously..." Rose started, giving Amy another onceover.

The Doctor cut Rose off, squeezing her hand reassuringly. "She can't have gotten through the doors without help from the TARDIS, and she certainly couldn't have made herself a room, so I think we have to believe her."

"Gee, thanks." Amy said, but there was a bit of a smile on her face, to say it wasn't meant harshly.

The Doctor took a few more steps into the room and held out his hand. "Can we start again? I'm The Doctor."

Amy jumped down from her perch and took those few steps, taking his hand. "Amy Pond."

The Doctor tilted his head at her and nodded slightly. "A pleasure to meet you, Amy Pond. Are you from Scotland?"

"Had to move to Cardiff when I was a kid." Amy explained. "It's rubbish." She grinned. "What's your excuse for being there?"

The Doctor grinned. "Fuel stop for the TARDIS. She gets hungry now and then."

Amy snorted a little. "Police box petrol station. Sounds about right."

Rose, feeling a little bit badly for how she had treated the other girl, just a _little_, moved forward and held out her hand, hoping that she would take her hand and drop The Doctor's, because neither of them had moved to break the handshake. "I'm Rose, Rose Tyler. Sorry about...before. It's just...usually when people come onboard, we know."

Amy dropped The Doctor's hand and took Rose's, shaking it firmly. "It's all right. I can imagine." She gave the blonde her friendliest smile. "It's nice to meet you Rose."

The Doctor looked between the two of them, and then smiled, thinking of Tegan and Nyssa, or Sarah Jane and the UNIT crew. He always did like it when the TARDIS was teeming with life, it made his life less lonely, if only for a little while. "Right then, Amy Pond, welcome to the TARDIS." There was a rumbling noise from the ship, who seemed to think that the welcome was unnecessary, but The Doctor did it anyway. "She travels anywhere in time and space."

"What, anywhere?" Amy said, slightly startled, dropping Rose's hand. "So what do people think when they see a police box, in a place where there aren't any?"

"Not everyone can see it." Rose put in. "And no one's gotten in before without a key, so it's not usually a problem."

"Well, don't I feel special." Amy said with a laugh, not sure what to make of it.

"You must be." The Doctor answered, completely honestly. "It usually takes The TARDIS awhile to warm up to someone." He studied her. "You must be very special indeed, Amy Pond."

Rose wasn't sure she liked how The Doctor, her Doctor, was looking at Amy, but she ignored it. After all, she was a mystery, and The Doctor loved a good mystery. That was all.


End file.
